Apparent US Airstrike Kills Three on Syrian Military Base

Though the US hasn’t explicitly ruled out attacking Syrian military targets in their assorted airstrikes in the country, they hadn’t done so until Sunday evening, when the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported an apparent US airstrike against a Syrian military camp in Deir Ezzor Province, killing three and wounding 13.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned the attack as an “act of aggression” and has sent letters to the UN Security Council protesting the US attack. The US, however, is denying that they were responsible for the attack.

US officials confirmed airstrikes in Deir Ezzor, but insisted that none hit military targets, and said they believed Russia had actually attacked the Syrian base, even though unlike the US, Russia is actually an ally of Syria and coordinating operations with them.

Officials claimed to have radar evidence that Russia was responsible for the “screw up,” though they did not offer this evidence to anyone to inspect. Russia, for its part, said the incident underscored the need to increase military coordination in the battle against ISIS.

Deir Ezzor, in the far east of Syria, is almost entirely ISIS-held, and the US launches the overwhelming majority of airstrikes there. Indeed, US officials have harshly criticized Russia for not launching more airstrikes in the east, instead focusing on al-Qaeda-held territory in the northwest Idlib Province.

6 thoughts on “Apparent US Airstrike Kills Three on Syrian Military Base”

The US military always denies having done something as a matter of first comment. The cowardly bombing of the MSF hospital in Kunduz is a recent example of it. I have little doubt that the US did indeed hit an SAA position deliberately. The question is whether it was sanctioned/directed by CENTCOM or it was a rogue decision down the chain of command. Either is plausible, and regardless of whichever it actually was, the FedGov will deny any culpability until its spokesperson is beet red in the face and on the verge of a stroke. That is the true essence of "facts on the ground."

The US has blamed the Russians. If so, it would be the sort of mistake the US has made often enough.

It is easy enough to check. American bombs and Russian bombs are quite different, and the fragments at the scene should be quite clear. But then, that would be actual fact, which rarely seems to penetrate this subject in the US mainstream press.

It would indeed be odd for the Russians to attack an airbase of any kind since the people they are fighting have no air force. Incompenet as the Russian military has been since the time of the Tsars, I don't think even they would be that stupid. Of course, planes often don't actually see the target they're attacking, so they might have been aiming at something near the base and "screwed up". Now, that would indeed be typical of the Russian military. That the US might have attacked the base is also quite plausible. And Israel is capable of anything.